Officials at the City of Carbondale, approximately two hours southeast of St. Louis, anticipate approximately 50,000 people will descend on the college town to experience this year’s total solar eclipse, dwarfing their population of about 21,700.
Eclipse watchers who get clouded or rained out can still watch the spectacle online via broadcasts from The Associated Press, NASA and others.
The peak spectacle on April 8 will last up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds in the path of total darkness — twice as long as the total solar eclipse that dimmed U.S. skies in 2017. Aside from Carbondale, Illinois, in the crosshairs of both the 2017 and 2024 eclipses, it usually takes 400 years to 1,000 years before totality returns to the same spot.